Posted in: Star Trek, TV | Tagged: bleeding cool, cable, couch surfing, discovery, jordan peele, Kirk, lower decks, People TV, prodigy, Shatner, short treks, star trek, strange new worlds, streaming, television, The Twilight Zone, tv, william shatner

William Shatner Talks Star Trek Offering Hope, Revisits Twilight Zone

William Shatner has no plans to stop any time soon even as he comes off celebrating his 90th birthday. With over 240 credits to his name in a career reaching seven decades, the actor, writer, director, and spoken word artist reflected on two of the arguably biggest franchises he played such an iconic role in shaping with Star Trek and The Twilight Zone with People's Couch Surfing. While the Canadian star, who became synonymous with the Gene Roddenberry franchise, has reason enough to be salty at his age, the Captain James Kirk actor has reason to believe humanity can rise from the ashes from its impending implosion.

How Star Trek Can Still Be Humanity's North Star: Shatner

"We're on the verge of extinction," Shatner said. "We are poisoning ourselves out of life, and the Earth will survive and this little cancer, mankind, that's growing all around her will die off the way a body gets a temperature and kills the germs off. Mother Earth will get rid of us because we're a pestilence. But we don't have to be. And we can join with the rest of life that makes it here on Earth with equanimity." While bleak in his initial assessment, he suggests the franchise still offers hope with its message standing the test of time. "The fact that Star Trek exists 400 years from now is sort of a promise that if we do those things, we will, your children, your grandchildren will continue to live and live in fairly decent circumstances if you follow what we're supposed to follow," he continued. "Star Trek says we exist 400 years from now, so there's hope. That's what the audience gets, is the hope. That's its message, and that's why I think Star Trek is popular."

When Shatner was shown his own debut from The Twilight Zone season two episode "Nick of Time", the actor admitted he couldn't remember much like the co-star he was featured in from the clip, but was reflective on his physique. The episode focused on a pair of newlyweds stopping in a small town are trapped by their own superstition when playing a fortune-telling machine in a local diner. Shatner did appear intrigued by the idea of revisiting the franchise given the Jordan Peele incarnation on Paramount+.

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